Crisis Assistance Coaching Program

Crisis Assistance Coaching Program (CACP)

The ECCCM Crisis Assistance Coaching Program (CACP) is a comprehensive coaching program that is an integral part of ECCCM’s ministry. As a Christian ministry, ECCCM’s philosophy continues to “provide a hand up, not a hand out.” To that end, CACP exists to better equip ECCCM clients for self-sufficiency and financial independence in the wake of crisis assistance.

CACP is intended to help individuals and/or families who are in crisis by offering personal coaching and goal setting as an effective means to self-sufficiency. Examination of client files and trends revealed that many clients have begun to rely on ECCCM’s Emergency Crisis Program (ECP) as revenue resources rather than crisis assistance, returning regularly for repeat assistance.

After experiencing a crisis situation that requires ministry assistance through the ECP, clients will be invited to enter into CACP, which will help them reexamine financial decisions, purchasing choices, menu and recipe decisions along with grocery shopping strategies, all intended to break the cycle of crisis.

Budgeting and financial management classes, recipe creation and shopping list preparation and cooking classes, debt reduction classes and personal goal setting are offered at the ministry center in a four-week cycles, will be mandatory through CACP as a prerequisite for further ECP applications while the client gains new life skills.

Through ECCCM's partnership with The Family Guidance Center, families that are in danger of foreclosure are being enrolled in the NC Foreclosure Prevention Program. This program offers zero-interest, deferred loans that can pay a mortgage for up to 36 months ($36,000), bring a delinquent mortgage current, or refinance an unaffordable second mortgage.

No individual or household experiencing a true crisis situation will be refused assistance. First-time claims are common during job layoffs, when rethinking of priorities must occur. CACP is intended as a coaching tool that helps individuals reexamine their decisions, making new choices because of new circumstances. CACP is also helpful for those individuals who have inadvertently come to rely on ECCCM’s ECP as a way of life.